German Cabinet Expected to Approve New Reparations Offer

June 12, 1952

BONN (Jun. 11)

The fate of the Jewish reparations claims against Germany will be decided early next week at a meeting of the West German Cabinet, it was indicated here today following a two-hour meeting yesterday between Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Dr. Nahum Goldmann at which other important members of the West German Government were present.

The local press today reported that as a result of this meeting, the German-Jewish reparations talks will be resumed on the basis of an offer by the Bonn Government to pay Israel $715,000,000, chiefly in goods, providing that the Cabinet approves the arrangement, under which the payments are to be completed within eight years.

Dr. Adenauer is confident that the Cabinet will approve of the proposal presented by him to Dr. Goldmann, the German press stated. It was also predicted that the proposal would receive majority support in Parliament, when presented for ratification.

(The New York Times today reported from Bonn that Dr. Goldmann accepted the Adenauer proposal as a basis for negotiations for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, of which he is the presiding officer, and that he indicated that Israel would also accept.)